The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Lantana that is grown for its predominantly white inflorescence composed of pure-white florets with yellow eyes. The new cultivar is known botanically as Lantana camara and will be referred to hereinafter by the cultivar name ‘WHITE GOLD’.
The inventor discovered and selected ‘WHITE GOLD’ in August 2004 at his nursery in Newnan, Ga. in the United States. ‘WHITE GOLD’ was discovered as a naturally occurring branch sport on an individual plant of Lantana ‘New Gold’ (unpatented). Selection was based on the criteria of inflorescence color.
When compared with Lantana ‘New Gold’, the new variety ‘WHITE GOLD’ exhibits identical habit, growth rate, and flower characteristics with the single distinguishing difference being the color of the inflorescence. The inflorescence of Lantana ‘New Gold’ is solid pure-yellow, whereas the inflorescence of ‘WHITE GOLD’ is predominantly white, being composed of pure-white florets with yellow eyes.
Lantana ‘New Gold’ has won many awards for its garden and landscape performance, due to the absence of seed set, and therefore absence of berry production. The berries of Lantana are highly poisonous. ‘New Gold’ is highly floriferous, due to its sterility. No seed or fruit has been produced to date by the new cultivar ‘WHITE GOLD’.
The inventor has grown crops of the parent plant Lantana camara ‘New Gold’ since 1990. Each year, the inventor sets up fresh stock of ‘New Gold’ mother plants in order to produce cuttings for the following season's commercial crop. In 2003 the inventor purchased three thousand cuttings of ‘New Gold’ specifically for the 2004-2005 season. These cuttings were stuck into propagation plugs. Once rooted, three plugs were potted into 2-liter containers, which served as stock plants for that current year's propagation cycles. Thus, by spring 2004 the inventor possessed approximately one thousand stock plants, each grown from these individual cuttings.
Because Lantana cuttings root and grow rapidly, the inventor was able to take the first three thousand cuttings, as tip cuttings, within one month. By summer 2004 the inventor had used the stock plants for a total of four propagation cycles and had rooted and grown approximately thirty thousand plants.
Lantana blooms in the southern region of the United States within three to four weeks of rooting. During spring and summer 2004 the inventor observed that all of the plants grown from the harvested cuttings described above, flowered true to type for Lantana ‘New Gold’—that is, they all bore solid pure-yellow flowers. In August 2004, the inventor observed that one single plant, which had been grown from the fourth cycle of cuttings, bore an inflorescence, which appeared predominantly white in color. The inventor removed and isolated this one plant and potted it into a 2-liter stockpot. The inventor considers this one plant, which is a naturally occurring white-flowering branch sport of Lantana ‘New Gold’, to be new and distinct, and the subject of the present invention Lantana plant named ‘WHITE GOLD’. The inventor has found no evidence of a similar white flowered form in commerce.
The first asexual reproduction of ‘WHITE GOLD’ was conducted by the inventor in 2004 at the inventor's nursery in Newnan, Ga. in the United States. The method used for asexual propagation was shoot cuttings taken from the single plant discovered by the inventor. All plants thus propagated bore the same inflorescence as the original single plant of ‘WHITE GOLD’—that is, predominantly white, composed of pure-white florets with yellow eyes. From fall 2004 until March 2005, the inventor has repeatedly asexually propagated ‘WHITE GOLD’ and has observed that all the plants have grown and flowered identically. Thus the inventor has determined that the characteristics herein described, of the new Lantana cultivar ‘WHITE GOLD’ are fixed, stable, and reproduce true to type in successive generations.
The cultivar considered by the inventor to be most similar to WHITE GOLD in habit is the parent variety Lantana ‘New Gold’ which appears to be identical in all respects except for the color of the inflorescence. The color of the inflorescence of Lantana ‘New Gold’ is orange-yellow, closest to the color reference 23A of The Royal Horticultural Society's Colour Chart, whereas the color of the inflorescence of ‘WHITE GOLD’ is predominantly pure white, as further described within the detailed botanical description.
The cultivar considered by the inventor to be most similar to WHITE GOLD in the color of its inflorescence is the unrelated variety Lantana ‘Silver Mound’ (unpatented). Whereas the flowers of ‘WHITE GOLD’ open with a clear white coloration and remain clear white (apart from the yellow center), the flowers of Lantana ‘Silver Mound’ open with a buttery-yellow coloration, and remain that color. In the landscape, the overall effect of ‘WHITE GOLD’ is of a much brighter, clearer white flowering display than is produced by Lantana ‘Silver Mound’.